U.S. patent number 3,944,096 [Application Number 05/577,699] was granted by the patent office on 1976-03-16 for freight transporter and loader for aircraft.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Cochran-Boothe Airport Systems. Invention is credited to Victor H. Carder.
United States Patent |
3,944,096 |
Carder |
March 16, 1976 |
Freight transporter and loader for aircraft
Abstract
The freight transporter and loader of the disclosure is a
vehicle having a power-driven, steerable wheeled chassis and having
an elevator support bed. The bed is provided with multiple
conveyors arranged to handle either three rows of LD-3 type cargo
containers or two rows of LD-7 type containers. The bed is provided
with a number of parallel conveyors extending along the length of
the bed, conveyor elements to selectively drive the cargo
containers transversely of the bed from one longitudinal conveyor
to another, and is also provided with means enabling cargo
containers to be reoriented through 180.degree. turns. The support
bed is provided with an interface or extension unit to enable an
aircraft to be loaded or unloaded. The interface unit is
selectively shiftable transversely of the forward end of the
support bed so as to be used in conjunction with a selected one of
the number of longitudinal conveyors on the support bed. The
interface unit can be extended and brought into coupled
relationship with the sill of the freight loading doorway of the
aircraft. The interface unit may also be pivoted both horizontally
and vertically relative to the support bed. The vertical pivotal
movability of the interface unit is related through a sensing and
control system to automatic vertical adjustment of the elevator
support bed in accordance with the lowering of the aircraft body as
it takes on the freight and raising of the aircraft body as freight
is unloaded.
Inventors: |
Carder; Victor H. (San
Francisco, CA) |
Assignee: |
Cochran-Boothe Airport Systems
(San Francisco, CA)
|
Family
ID: |
27037592 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/577,699 |
Filed: |
May 15, 1975 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
Issue Date |
|
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454739 |
Apr 1, 1974 |
|
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|
|
349417 |
Apr 9, 1973 |
3854610 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
414/345 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B60P
1/02 (20130101); B60P 1/52 (20130101); B64F
1/322 (20200101); B60P 1/38 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
B60P
1/00 (20060101); B64F 1/32 (20060101); B60P
1/38 (20060101); B60P 1/52 (20060101); B60P
1/02 (20060101); B60P 1/36 (20060101); B64F
1/00 (20060101); B60P 001/44 () |
Field of
Search: |
;214/518,512,520,521,522,83.26,38D,38R
;244/118R,118P,137R,137P |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Makay; Albert J.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Naylor, Neal & Uilkema
Parent Case Text
This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 454,739, filed Apr.
1, 1974, now abandoned which in turn was a division of application
Ser. No. 349,417, filed Apr. 9, 1973 now U.S. Pat. No. 3,854,610.
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A freight unit transporter and loader vehicle for aircraft
comprising a freight unit support bed, conveyor means carried by
the bed for the movement of freight units along the bed, a support
bed extension unit connected to the support bed, means to connect
the extension unit to a loading doorway of an aircraft, conveyor
means carried by the extension unit to enable the transfer of
freight units from the extension unit into the aircraft, and means
for horizontally pivotally swinging the extension unit relative to
the support bed whereby the extension unit may be disposed normal
to the aircraft doorway while the support bed may be disposed
parallel to a trailing edge of a wing of the aircraft.
2. The combination of claim 1 including a wheeled chassis for the
support bed, means to raise and lower the support bed on the
chassis, and sensing and control means to adjustably operate said
raising and lowering means in response to
freight-transferance-induced raising and lowering aircraft fuselage
whereby the support bed and extension unit are maintained in
substantially horizontal alignment with the bottom of the aircraft
doorway.
3. The combination of claim 2, said sensing and control means
comprising means enabling limited vertical pivotal swinging
movement of the extension unit relative to the support bed, and
means responsive to the sensing of a predetermined small angle of
vertical tilt of the extension unit to raise or lower the support
bed to substantially the level of the aircraft-connected forward
end of the extension unit.
4. A freight unit transporter and loader vehicle for aircraft
comprising a freight unit support bed, conveyor means carried by
the bed for the movement of freight units along the bed, a support
bed extension unit connected to the support bed, means to connect
the extension unit to a loading doorway of an aircraft, conveyor
means carried by the extension unit to enable the transfer of
freight units from the extension unit into the aircraft, a wheeled
chassis for the support bed, means to raise and lower the support
bed on the chassis, and sensing and control means to adjustably
operate said raising and lowering means in response to
freight-transferance-induced raising or lowering of the aircraft
fuselage whereby the support bed and extension unit are maintained
in substantially horizontal alignment with the bottom of the
aircraft doorway, said extension unit being provided with means
enabling the horizontal pivotal swinging movement thereof whereby
the extension unit may be disposed normal to the aircraft doorway
while the support bed may be disposed parallel to a trailing edge
of a wing of the aircraft.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The freight handling vehicle of the invention is especially
designed to expedite the transporting and loading and unloading of
cargo containers in conjunction with wide-body jet aircraft in this
country which presently consist of the Boeing 747, the
McDonald-Douglas DC-10 and the Lockheed L-1011. These planes are
still being freight-loaded with equipment of the type which has
been used for years to load the 707 and DC-8 jet aircraft. The
inevitable trend is toward utilization of the wide-body jet
aircraft to carry freight and passengers at the same time. With the
presently known freight handling and loading equipment, LD-3 and
LD-7 type cargo containers are loaded in the cargo plane areas of
large airports, transported by slow trailer train carriers to the
passenger areas which are frequently located at substantial
distances from the cargo plane areas, and loaded into the aircraft
slowly through the use of conventional airline support equipment.
With this old type of freight handling equipment, it takes about
one-half hour at the San Francisco airport to load a Boeing 747
passenger-freight jet aircraft at the passenger terminal with its
full load of allotted freight, a job which takes the subject
freight handling vehicles about ten minutes.
The present transporter/loader is a large scale vehicle of about 50
feet in length, 16 feet or so in width, and having a highway speed
of 25 mph or more. One such unit can hold 16 LD-3 units. Two of
these transporter/loaders can entirely load a forward and rear
freight compartment of a 747 with a substantial saving in aircraft
loading time.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The various objects and advantages of the invention will be
apparent from the foregoing and from the following description
taken in conjunction with the drawings forming part of this
specification, and in which:
FIG. 1 is a view in perspective of the transporter and loader
embodying the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a view in perspective of the vehicle during the course of
an aircraft freight loading operation;
FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the vehicle without cargo
containers;
FIG. 4 is a reduced scale top plan view of the vehicle with a full
load of smaller cargo containers;
FIG. 5 is a similar view of the vehicle with a full load of larger
cargo containers;
FIG. 6 is a view in side elevation of the vehicle showing the
elevator support bed in raised position;
FIG. 7 is a similar view showing the elevator support bed in
lowered position;
FIG. 8 is a view taken along lines 8--8 of FIG. 6;
FIG. 9 is a view taken along lines 9--9 of FIG. 6;
FIG. 10 is an enlarged detail view in top plan showing one of the
six conveyor tracks of the support bed conveyor system of FIG.
3;
FIG. 11 is a view taken along the lines 11--11 of FIG. 10;
FIG. 12 is a detail view in perspective of the conveyor of FIG.
13;
FIG. 13 is an enlarged view taken along lines 13--13 of FIG.
11;
FIG. 14 is an enlarged detail view in top plan of one of the cargo
row divider elements of FIG. 3;
FIG. 15 is a view taken along lines 15--15 of FIG. 14, showing the
divider element in a lowered position;
FIG. 16 is a similar view showing the divider element in raised
position;
FIG. 17 is an enlarged view taken along lines 17--17 of FIG.
15;
FIG. 18 is an enlarged top plan view of the forward end of the
support bed and the interface unit;
FIG. 19 is a view taken along lines 19--19 of FIG. 18;
FIG. 20 is a view taken along lines 20--20 of FIG. 18;
FIG. 21 is a view taken along lines 21--21 of FIG. 18;
FIG. 22 is a view taken along lines 22--22 of FIG. 19;
FIG. 23 is a view taken along line 23--23 of FIG. 19;
FIG. 24 is an enlarged detail view in top plan of the forward end
of the interface unit, particularly showing the selectively usable
aircraft connectors for the 747, DC-10 and L-1011 aircraft;
FIGS. 25-28 are views in side elevation of these particular
aircraft connector members;
FIG. 29 is an enlarged top plan view of the transverse drive
conveyor and container rotation stage of FIG. 3;
FIG. 30 is a semi-schematic view illustrating a sequence of
handling of cargo container units on the elevator support bed of
FIG. 3;
FIG. 31 is a semi-schematic view illustrating cargo container
rotation on the elevator support bed of FIG. 3;
FIG. 32 is an enlarged detail view taken along lines 32--32 of FIG.
29;
FIG. 33 is an enlarged detail view taken along lines 33--33 of FIG.
29;
FIG. 34 is a semi-schematic view of the control panel for the
vehicle; and
FIG. 35 is a semi-schematic view showing in top plan the parts of
FIG. 3 and their operational elements.
With reference initially, for the broader details of the vehicle
embodying the inventions, to FIGS. 1-9, the vehicle comprises a
wheeled chassis 10, an operator's cab 12, an elevator support bed
14, an interface or extension unit 16, and an operator's console
18.
As shown in FIGS. 6-9, bed 14 is supported on chassis 10 for
raising and lowering movement by four pairs of scissors links 20,
two pair being located along each side of the vehicle, operated by
cylinders 22 and supported by fore and aft stabilizing scissors
links 24. The bed 14 is preferably provided with removable stake
panels 26.
Carried by bed 14 (see FIG. 3) are conveyors 28, 30 and 32,
constituting in one condition for operation the means for handling
three abreast rows of LD-3 containers, as shown in FIG. 4, and in
another condition of operation adapted to constitute two
three-chain conveyors operable to handle two rows of LD-7 cargo
containers as shown in FIG. 5. The LD-3 containers are designated
by reference no. 34 and the LD-7 containers are designated by
reference no. 36. The bed is provided with vertically movable
divider strips 38 and 40 adapted to keep the three rows of
containers shown in FIG. 4 separated from each other and 42 adapted
to keep the two rows of containers shown in FIG. 5 separated from
each other.
In stage A (see FIG. 3) the containers are merely movable either
forwardly or rearwardly along the length of the bed. In stage B the
containers are movable both forwardly and rearwardly lengthwise of
the bed and are also movable transversely of the bed, from any one
to any other of the conveyors 28, 30, 32, by roller conveyors 44.
Stage B is the lateral distribution stage of the bed conveyor
systems.
Interface or extension unit 16 is movable transversely of bed 14 to
align its power conveyor 46 with conveyor 32 or conveyor 30, is
swingable in a horizontal plane relative to bed 14 (see FIG. 2) so
that it may be squarely aligned with cargo hatch or doorway 48
while the bed 14 is lined up parallel to the trailing edge 50 of
the aircraft, and is pivotally related to the bed with reference to
a vertical plane in order to move up and down some slight degree
with the aircraft body and thereby operate limit switches to cause
bed 14 to be driven up or down in accordance with corresponding
movement of the aircraft body.
SPECIFIC DETAILS
a. The Longitudinal Bed Conveyors
Conveyors 28, 30 and 32 are shown in more complete detail in FIGS.
10-13. They comprise chains 52, plates 54 connected to the chains,
support rollers 56, idler and drive sprockets 58 and 60 and drive
means comprising reversible motor 62, motor output shaft 64, jack
shaft 66 and drive sprocket shaft 68. There is one motor 62 for
each of the pairs of conveyor tracks 28 and 32, while each of the
tracks making up the conveyor 30 is driven by another motor 62, as
indicated in FIG. 35.
The barrier members 38, 40, 42 are shown in specific detail in
FIGS. 14-17. Each such member is carried by a pair of hydraulic
cylinders 70 and is selectively movable between the low position of
FIG. 15 and the high position of FIG. 16. Insofar as stage A (see
FIG. 3) is concerned, barrier members 38 and 40 are raised and
barrier members 42 are lowered when the freight load condition is
as shown in FIG. 4, while barrier members 38 and 40 are lowered and
barrier members 42 are raised when the freight load condition is as
shown in FIG. 5. Barrier members 38 and 40 of stage B are raised in
the FIG. 4 condition and are lowered when the transverse drive
conveyor rollers 44 are raised and operated, as hereinafter
described, to drive cargo containers laterally of the bed in stage
B.
b. The Interface or Extension Unit
The details of this unit are shown in FIGS. 18-28. It comprises a
stationary base frame 72 (FIG. 19), intermediate frame 74 supported
for transverse movement with respect to base frame 72 by rollers 76
and 78 and guide member 80, and upper frame 82 carried by
intermediate frame 74. Frames 74 and 82 are moved transversely of
the front end of the support bed 14 by hydraulic cylinder 84 and
cylinder rod 86, the former being connected to base frame 72 and
the latter being connected to intermediate frame 74.
The upper frame 82 is pivotally connected to frame 74 for limited
horizontal swinging movement, as illustrated in FIG. 23.
The vertical pivot axis for upper frame 82 is the axis of stub
shaft 88 (FIGS. 21 and 23). Frame 82 is pivotally moved about the
axis of shaft 88 by means (see FIG. 23) comprising cylinder 90,
lever arm 92, link 94 and yoke 96, being supported by roller 98
which rides on the intermediate frame 74.
Frame 82 is also mounted for limited vertical swinging movement
(see FIG. 20) by means comprising cylinders 100, rocker arms 102
and pivot axis defining means 104 and 106 (FIGS. 21 and 23).
Frame 82 is provided with extensible sub-frame 108 which is
connected to cylinder 109 (see FIGS. 20 and 22) by crosshead 112
and arms 114. The piston rod of cylinder 109 remains stationary
while the cylinder itself moves inwardly or outwardly to move the
assembly 108 between the dotted outline and solid outline position
shown in FIG. 22.
The extension assembly 108 comprises roller 110 which is
power-driven by drive train elements 112 including a motor (FIG.
35).
The interface unit is provided with means (FIGS. 21 and 23) for
controlling the operating level of bed 14 in accordance with the
angle of vertical tilt of platform 82, said means comprising levers
114 pivotally attached to frame 74 and urged by springs 116 to bear
rollers 118 against frame 82, arms 114 being in control relation to
limit switches 120 and 122. When the aircraft body moves downwardly
under the freight load frame 82 pivotally follows it, depressing
lever arms 114 and closing switch 122 to enable bed-lowering
operation of cylinders 22. When the aircraft during unloading moves
upwardly springs 116 cause arms 114 to close switch 120 and thereby
operate cylinders 22 to drive bed 14 upwardly.
The extension assembly 108 (see FIGS. 24-28) is provided with a
plurality of selectively usable hook or latching elements 128, all
shown in their outwardly extended or operative positions in FIGS.
24-28, adapted to connect the interface unit with the loading door
spindles of the aircraft. These elements 128 are maintained in
extended positions for operation by removable pins 130 which bear
against the leading edges of support plate members 132. As
indicated by the notations adjacent FIGS. 24-28 the members 128 are
used in pairs depending upon the aircraft being handled and in most
cases whether the cargo door is the forward one or the aft one.
Frame 82 of the interface unit 16 is provided with power conveyor
130 and with idler conveyor rolls 132 and 134. The extension
assembly 108 is also provided with idler conveyor rollers 136.
Conveyor 130 is constructed similarly to conveyors 28, 30 and 32.
The conveyor drive system comprises (FIG. 22) motor 138, jack shaft
140 and conveyor drive shaft 142.
Conveyor means 144 (FIG. 18-23) is provided as a trailing part of
interface unit 16, said means 144 comprising housing 146 having a
pivot connection 148 with intermediate frame 74 and supported on
frame 74 at its other end by roller 150. Carried for rotation by
frame 146 is shaft 152 which drives conveyor roller 154 and
supports idler roller 156 (FIG. 22). As best shown in FIG. 23, when
frame 82 is pivoted through an angle X conveyor means 144 is
pivoted through an angle of approximately X/2 by means comprising
cylinder 90, lever 92 and link 158. The drive means for the shaft
152 comprises drive shaft 142 and power train elements 158 driven
thereby (see FIG. 22).
Also mounted on frame 82 of interface unit 16 is the operator's
console 18 and its support platform 160.
c. Stage B of the Main Bed
These details are shown in FIGS. 29-33. The conveyor rollers 44 are
arranged in sub-assemblies (see FIG. 32) comprising carrier 162, a
pair of cylinders 164 for raising and lowering the carrier,
power-driven rollers 166 and idler rollers 168. When the rollers
166 and 168 are in the raised dotted lines positions shown in FIG.
32, cargo containers, 34 or 36 as the case may be, may be driven
transversely of stage B for placement on a selected one of the
conveyors 28, 30, 32.
Means are provided in stage B to reorient a cargo container, as for
example when the last LD-3 unit on the transporter/loader has its
beveled end wrongly oriented with respect to the shape of the last
space within the plane to be filled with such a cargo container.
The reorienting means comprises means for driving the tracks of
center conveyor 30 in opposite directions and pivot pad 170 to
yieldingly engage the bottom of the container to facilitate its
rotation under the opposite forces applied to the container by the
oppositely moving tracks of conveyor 30. Pad 170 is raised from the
solid line inoperative position shown in FIG. 33 to the dotted line
operative position by cylinders 172 operative to raise and lower
sleeve 174 and thereby raise and lower pad 170.
d. Operation
FIG. 2 shows the vehicle in the process of loading containers into
the aft cargo hatch of one of the wide-body aircraft. The vehicle
is maneuvered to bring the long sides of the bed 14 into parallel
relation with the swept-back trailing edge of the wing of the
aircraft and the interface unit 16 is then pivotally maneuvered
into a position where it is normal to the hatch and in appropriate
container-receiving relation to the appropriate bed conveyor 30,
32. Bed 14 is raised to approximately the level of the lower edge
of the hatchway. Extension assembly 108 is then driven forward to
make contact with the aircraft and, if necessary, the frame 82 is
then power-tilted by means 100, 102 to connect the appropriate
latching members 128 with the loading door spindles. The
auto-leveling control is then switched on (see console 18 in FIG.
34). This causes bed 14 to be vertically moved to remove the tilt
condition of the interface unit and thereafter the bed and
interface unit are maintained in substantial horizontal alignment
with the bottom of the hatchway opening.
All of the rest of the operational details have been previously
described.
* * * * *